For this one, you must win sympathy in order to lead a cover-up.
WRONG (any gender, late teens)
I'm not afraid of Stan. I'm not afraid of getting into "trouble." What we did was wrong. We were hired to watch over those kids. And we stepped aside. Just a little time, best of reasons, I have no regrets about us-- where our relationship went-- where it IS now. But we did step aside.
And a kid is missing.
Stan should know. And once the kid is found, we should be punished. No: We should be. We SHOULD be.
But.
The problem...
When I took this job, I memorized the contract. Anything to do with money, I, I, I can't afford to leave any details fuzzy. Okay? And the contract says "failure to perform the duties described herein may result in partial or complete termination of final payment."
Final payment. See, if I can't get the full final payment, I don't have anyplace to go. I'm not going back to my Dad. He... well, it's complicated. Just... complicated.
There's a place in Portland that I've got set up. But if I can't make the downpayment... if I can't even afford to get my stuff out of STORAGE...
I know what we did was wrong. I've learned my lesson. But before telling Stan... maybe we find the kid first. Maybe we see just HOW wrong things have to be?
Copyright 2016 by Matt Haynes.
If you would like to use this piece, please credit: "Courtesy of Matt Haynes and The Pulp Stage"